by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief

MALIBU, Calif. (Worthy News) – Thousands of college students gathered at Pepperdine University in Southern California this week for an evening of worship, prayer, and preaching that organizers say resulted in hundreds making decisions to follow Jesus Christ and many being baptized.

The September 22 gathering, called Unite LA, was held at Pepperdine’s Firestone Fieldhouse and marked the first West Coast gathering of the UniteUS movement. Pepperdine had promoted the event as an evening of “worship, faith, connection, and spiritual renewal,” featuring worship led by UPPERROOM.

“Thousands of students gathered at Pepperdine last night to worship Jesus together, and hundreds made the decision to give their lives to Him,” UniteUS reported following the gathering.

Students remained after the formal event had ended, according to the ministry, continuing to pray and worship as baptisms took place.

“We truly believe what happened last night is going to have an impact far beyond Pepperdine,” UniteUS said. “We are praying this is the beginning of something powerful across California.”

The gathering did not emerge without preparation. Pepperdine students had established a student-led UNITE ministry in partnership with UniteUS specifically to pray and prepare the campus for spiritual renewal centered on Jesus Christ ahead of the September event.

A Movement Spreading Across American Campuses

The scenes at Pepperdine are the latest chapter in a campus evangelistic movement that began at Auburn University in September 2023, when thousands of students packed Neville Arena to worship and hear the Gospel. UniteUS says its gatherings center on three goals: salvation, freedom, and connecting students with Christian community and discipleship.

The movement quickly spread to universities across the country. By late 2024, founder Tonya Prewett said UniteUS gatherings had drawn more than 70,000 students across 11 campuses representing roughly 400 universities, with approximately 5,000 professions of faith and nearly 2,000 baptisms reported. Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Among the notable gatherings:

• At the University of Florida in October 2024, UniteUS reported about 1,000 students made decisions for Christ, with hundreds participating in baptisms.
• Earlier events included roughly 300 baptisms at Florida State University, 260 at the University of Alabama, and about 150 at the University of Georgia, where some students were baptized in makeshift pools in pickup-truck beds.
•  In September 2025, nearly 7,000 young people gathered at the University of South Florida, where organizers reported more than 1,000 decisions for Christ and 300-plus baptisms.
• At the University of Tennessee later that month, more than 8,000 students gathered and approximately 500 responded to the Gospel, according to UniteUS.
• In February 2026, more than 5,000 students gathered at the University of Central Florida, where UniteUS founder Tonya Prewett reported 1,600 decisions to follow Jesus and hundreds of baptisms.
• The movement reached the University of Pittsburgh in March, where thousands gathered and hundreds reportedly responded to the Gospel before baptisms continued outside the arena past midnight.
• Pepperdine itself has already seen significant hunger for corporate worship. In 2024, some 5,000 people filled Alumni Park for the university’s Worship Summit, including more than 1,500 students.d

What began with several thousand students at Auburn three years ago has now crossed the country to California. Whether the Pepperdine gathering develops into something broader remains to be seen, but for the students who prayed, worshiped, responded to the Gospel, and entered the waters of baptism, UniteUS believes the night represented another sign of a spiritual awakening taking place among America’s younger generation.

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